Who can you trust?
by HedgieX
Summary: Alex has a secret, but is scared to tell Gene what's wrong in case he doesn't understand. Meanwhile, Jim is playing games with their minds, and his behaviour leads to a dramatic showdown involving fire and a lake. Written by me and Bethany, please R and R
1. Chapter 1

Alex and Gene were curled up on the sofa together, watching an old movie on the TV. Alex shifted uncomfortably and moved away from Gene – he just sighed, not knowing what to say or do.

They sat in silence for a few moments. The couple on the TV were now kissing, and Gene flushed as he felt Alex's eyes on the side of his head. Suddenly, the doorbell rang, and Alex jumped up to get it. She opened the door and came face to face with Jim.

"Evening, Alex," he said, with a charming manner.

"Jim..." Alex didn't really know how to reply, "I'm a bit busy at the moment – can we talk tomorrow?"

"Alex, who is it?" Gene called through from the lounge suspiciously.

Jim raised his eyebrows, smiling. He reached out for her hand, "Why not now?"

Alex wrenched her arm away from his grasp.

"Alex?" Gene seemed to be getting even more impatient now.

"Two minutes," she shouted back. She met Jim's gaze; his eyes were bright blue, and somehow he looked quite handsome. She shook herself – she loved Gene. "Go away, Jim. Please. Leave us, just for one night."

Jim nodded and turned around to leave. Alex closed the door quickly behind him, sighing with relief, and returned to the lounge.

"Who was that?" asked Gene.

"No one," mumbled Alex. She sat back down at the other end of the sofa, and they both stared at the TV for a while longer, but neither of them were paying any attention to the film.

"Why do you keep secrets from me?" Gene questioned her eventually, sounding hurt, "I thought we were supposed to trust each other."

"Just go then, if you're going to be like that," Alex snapped, tears springing to her eyes.

Gene swallowed, speaking more gently, "Please, just tell me what's wrong."

"You're as bad as him, aren't you? You don't care. I don't need any of you any more," Alex threw his coat at him and pointed to the door, "I want to be on my own."

Gene hesitated, then left. He carefully shut the door behind himself, hitting his head against it before he walked away.

Alex cuddled herself, sobbing. She wanted Gene to be there with her, to tell her everything would be okay. But she was too scared to tell him what was going on – she didn't know how he'd take it. She decided to go to bed; still crying, she slowly walked to the bedroom and curled up under the covers. She wondered if Gene really loved her, or if he was just pretending.

When she was sad, she thought of Molly. She prayed every day that she'd get to see her daughter again; she was so scared that she'd be trapped in the past forever. She loved Gene, but she needed Molly more.

XxXxX

The next day, Alex awoke to the sound of loud knocking on her flat door. She shuffled out of bed and wandered across to the door, hesitating before opening it

Jim stood in the entrance, his voice shocked as he talked, "Alex, you need to come quickly! Shaz has gone missing!"

"What?" Alex felt her heart beat faster against her ribs; Shaz could be a little annoying sometimes, but they all loved her, "What happened? When was this?"

"We don't know. She had an argument with Chris – she said she was going to find him after he left the office. He came back, but she didn't..." mumbled Jim.

Alex scowled. She didn't know whether to trust Jim, or if she wanted to help him anyway. But this was Shaz, and she couldn't just leave her if she really was in danger. What should she do?

"She was really upset!" Jim pleaded, "She loves you, Alex – she'll calm down if you talk to her. Please! For her, if not for me."

"Okay," Alex followed Jim reluctantly, and they drove off, but she quickly noticed Jim wasn't driving in the right direction. She gasped as she realised what was happening, "Jim, where are you taking me? Let me go!"

Jim ignored her and kept on driving.

"Jim! What are you doing?" asked Alex nervously. She tried pulling on her seatbelt, but it was jammed.

Jim's eyes were still bright, but now they looked evil too. She couldn't believe she'd ever liked him, even for a minute. "Just sit still, Alex. You'll be fine as long as you do what I say."

"But what do you mean? What are you going to do with me?"

Jim shook his head, driving the car faster and faster until they rounded the corner and flew straight into the lake. Alex spluttered as the car filled up with water. The seatbelt was still jammed, and the water was filling her mouth, so she couldn't scream for help. "Mmm!"

Jim undid his own seatbelt and climbed out of the open window, leaving Alex to struggle with her seatbelt. Alex managed to scream in the hope that someone would hear her, but no one came.

She could feel herself growing quickly weaker – she could barely breathe any more. Jim had swum up to the edge now and dragged himself up onto dry land. He just stood smirking at her as the water got even higher and washed over her head.

Jim pulled a bottle of petrol from his jacket pocket and waded into the water, covering the top of the car in petrol and setting it alight. He ran out of the water and took his radio out of his pocket. "Oh, Genie, you might want to get here!"

"What the hell have you done, Jimbo? Where are you?" Gene yelled back down the line.

"If I told you that, it'd spoil all the fun!" Jim cackled. He watched Alex as she finally shoved the seatbelt away, but couldn't get out of the car. The fire was spreading too fast to be put out by the water – in a few minutes, the car would explode into a petrol bomb and burn her alive.

Alex dragged her radio out of her pocket, but collapsed before she could speak into it.

Back at the station, Gene ran out of his office as fast as he could; when he finally got to the lake, he was sweating, and petrified for what he'd find. He saw the car, saw the fire, saw Alex... "No!"

Just as she couldn't hold on any more, Alex caught sight of Gene. He was throwing himself through the water, trying desperately to reach her. She managed a tiny smile despite what was happening – he did care. He loved her. Nothing else mattered apart from that. She fell unconscious.

XxXxX

**Well, this is my second Ashes story I've put on FanFiction – this one was written by me and my friend Bethany this afternoon while we were reminiscing over Ashes to Ashes :)**

**Something to bear in mind; we have this kind of obsession where Jim is always the baddie in our stories! Hope you enjoyed this, I think we're going to work on a second part...**

**Please review and tell me what you think; thanks for reading xxx**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 of Who Can You Trust**

**By ****Hannah**** and ****Bethany**

**Sorry it's been a while – we haven't see each other for a while :( **

**Thanks for the reviews from the first chapter – they're really appreciated. Sashqueenofthejungle, I hope we've answered some of your questions. And Jazzola, we tried to pad it out a bit more this time!**

**But anyway, here's the second chapter, and we'll work on another one ASAP. Please review and tell us what you thought xxx**

"Alex!" Gene screamed, throwing himself at the car and hammering on the windows. He dived down to the bottom of the lake and scooped up an old iron rod, which he managed to shove through one of the windows. Glass splintered everywhere, cutting his arms, but he ignored it and kept smashing until he could wriggle through into the car.

He pulled at the seatbelt, but it wouldn't budge. Gene groaned to himself; he tugged at it and it finally broke. He scooped her up in his arms and carefully dragged her out of the car.

Gently, he eased himself out too, and swam back to the side of the lake with her, jumping out and dragging her up onto the bank. He was shivering with cold, fear and pain. Her chest wasn't rising…

He sighed and tried clearing her throat of the water, "C'mon Bolls wake up; I need you!"

There was silence for a moment, then she coughed and spluttered, and pushed herself up onto one elbow, gazing around her nervously, "Gene…"

Gene smiled and hugged her. Alex sighed and smiled too; they drew back from each other eventually. Jim stood watching; he couldn't help feeling a little jealous.

Gene felt around in his pocket for his radio, but realised it was broken – water was dripping from the cracks as it crackled miserably. Alex clutched his arm tighter all of a sudden – Jim stood watching them with a grimace spread across his face. Gene followed Alex's gaze and looked straight at Jim.

"Great!" he mumbled to himself. He stood up slowly, "What do you want?"

"Gene…Gene, leave it. Come on, you're bleeding. We need to get back to Fenchurch, Shaz will get us some tea, and Ray can bandage up your hands," Alex pleaded, pulling him back as he stared menacingly at Jim.

Jim rolled his eyes. "So sweet, you and her, even though I'm sure it won't last long!" he said, smirking. Gene growled at him; he felt like he could hit him.

"Gene, please. We can walk back; it's not too far, we…"

"Alex, he could've killed you!" Gene snapped, tears sparkling in his eyes as he turned towards her, "I'm not going to let him walk away. You don't understand."

Alex sighed, her mouth quivering. She couldn't bear to look at either of them. She shook her head, and ran as far as she could away from them. Gene sighed watching her go.

She ran and ran until she reached the main road; she was still dripping, and the cold autumn air was gusting down her neck – she shivered violently. When she eventually managed to stumble up the steps of Fenchurch East, she was crying and clutching her side where she'd cut herself on some glass from the car.

"Ma'am!" Shaz ran out to her, taking her by the arm and helping her inside, "Ma'am, what happened? Where's Gene? Oh my God, you're freezing!"

"I ran away, Jim was there…" mumbled Alex; she felt confused and she didn't know what to do.

"Gov? The other gov?" Shaz gasped, "What did he do? Chris! Get some coffees!"

"Hey, you're the coffee girl," Chris mumbled from behind a magazine.

Shaz stormed across and threw the magazine down on the floor, "What have I told you about reading those types of magazines, Chris! It's disgusting! And you will get Ma'am a cup of coffee – now!"

"Oh, boss…ma'am…okay," he nodded, stood up and ran off towards the kitchen.

Alex smiled weakly and sat down, "But…the gov – he's still there!"

"It's okay, Ma'am. Calm down. Where are they? What's happening?" Shaz picked up a radio from the desk, "Ray, come in."

"Shaz?" he replied.

Shaz smiled sweetly, whispering to Alex, "I've always wanted to do that."

"Shaz, what's up?"

"Gov's got in a situation with the other gov, they're…where are they, ma'am?"

Alex shook her head, taking the radio from the WPC, "Give it here, Shaz. Look, Ray…Jim, he's not who we thought…it's complicated. But he's down by the river, and Gene's with him – he's injured."

Ray sounded worried, "Are you okay?"

"Mmm…"

"Okay, well, I'll get down to the river and see what's happening, then," he sounded dubious, but agreeing, "Over and out."

XxXxX

Meanwhile, at the river, Gene was wondering where Alex had gone.

"You scared her away, Gene; I'm not surprised though!" laughed Jim. Gene just stared at him.

Just then, the Quattro came speeding down the hill; it stopped just before it went into the river. Gene was confused and angry.

Ray jumped out of the driver's seat, "Sorry, gov, but sometimes you just have to do something a little bit out of the ordinary. Anyway, I kept it clean – no Vindaloo this time. And I'm here now; what's rockin'?"

"You fail so badly," Gene sighed, but he secretly felt proud as Ray crossed the grass and stood beside him loyally, eyeing Jim with hatred.

He was suddenly reminded of a song he and Alex had danced to. He couldn't remember all the words, but…

_So true_

_Funny how it seems_

_Always in time_

_But never in line for dreams._

She'd put her head on his shoulder; they'd been so, so close…

_Head over heels_

_When toe to toe_

_This is the sound_

_Of my soul._

Jim had ruined that too. Taken her away, made her not believe. There was a mental barrier there – he couldn't remember… Couldn't remember.

But he knew one thing. Jim wouldn't tear them apart this time.

Jim looked at Gene and nearly laughed, "What's wrong with you? She obviously doesn't care for you at all!"

"She does…I know she does," mumbled Gene.

"She does. She bought him some cowboy-boot polish for his birthday. Very expensive. So ha," Ray snarled, kicking up some dust as he flung his foot at the ground.

"Yeah, Ray…not really helping."

"Sorry, Gov."

"How very touching!" Jim said, laughing. Gene could feel all of his anger welling up inside him. He went up to Jim and punched him in his mouth. Jim fell to the floor, rolled over and slipped into the river, leaving nothing but the ripple of the water as Gene and Ray gasped.

"Ooh shit."

XxXxX


End file.
